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Come on Steve, you need to be more honest on the disadvantages.....there's plenty more starting with Police you can't trust, courts that can be bought or pressured, drivers who refuse to follow any known rules, workmen who lack any regulation of training/workmanship or customer service, no such thing as customer service...anywhere, face control, hot water being turned off in summer, current import restrictions, Soviet era planes and airlines that employee Russian maintenance workers, alcohol fueled violence, soccer matches unsafe to spectate unless a racist skinhead, gay friends getting beat to a pulp, women who "don't" smoke (but do ), no-one gives a hoot about littering, girlfriends who think if they keeping driving without their seatbelts long enough the warning alarms will become less annoying ........etc etc

but having survived living in Ekaterinburg in the recent past, I can agree with you on your advantages 1,3 and 4, , and add plenty more.....

lack of PC "nazis", majority not ruled by "Facebook" minority rule, feminine women, wonderful fresh/flavorsome berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, ability to buy vegies from "granny" on the corner, dacha's, banya's, freedom to camp in forests and besides lakes and streams, freedom to use snow mobiles, being able to free skate, few law suits, low maintenance friends, summer promenades, every "puddle" being a summer sunbathing spot for models in gstrings, real wood bbq's, plenty of slavic foods and salads, few "planning" issues when renovating, no "Ministry of Anti-fun", cheap mobile phone plans, they had "uber" before Uber (gypsy cabs anyone?) .......

I enjoyed my years there in the main, but when choosing where to raise my son there was no contest....

back to Oz, with winter holidays spent "summering" a second time back in Russia/Ukraine

Steveboy you've got to keep up with the news. One of the advantages of living in Russia is NOT getting away from 'Big Brother', #1 on your list. The Russian government monitors the Internet, telephone and social media at least as well as any US government security service and international signals intelligence groups such as the Five Eyes.

Russian internet service providers are required by law to install the necessary tech, at the ISPs cost, to allow the security services to monitor the Internet. I'm sure the ISPs eventually pass on the cost to their customers.

In the end Steveboy, moving to Russia is just exchanging one 'Big Brother' for another 'Big Brother'. Sorry to crush your dream.

Steveboy you've got to keep up with the news. One of the advantages of living in Russia is NOT getting away from 'Big Brother', #1 on your list. The Russian government monitors the Internet, telephone and social media at least as well as any US government security service and international signals intelligence groups such as the Five Eyes.

Russian internet service providers are required by law to install the necessary tech, at the ISPs cost, to allow the security services to monitor the Internet. I'm sure the ISPs eventually pass on the cost to their customers.

In the end Steveboy, moving to Russia is just exchanging one 'Big Brother' for another 'Big Brother'. Sorry to crush your dream.

My dream is far from crushed Everything is perfect for me, my only regret is I wish I never left the UK many many years ago. I hear often hear the same story from many others also who managed to escape the shackles of society Another one of my close friends from the same village in the UK is following my footsteps this year..

Don't worry Westcoast, the world is not as you think. As in many other countries this legislation exists but there has been a lot of discussion about this.

The government gave undertakings about the use and purpose of the legislation.

While people might, with reason, not like the legislation it is directly analogous to that seen in, for example, the UK. The benefit of legislation is that it provides for limits that can be enforced. The US, for example, on the other hand is intrusive but there is little to no way to control the activity of the observers when legislation does not exist because how does one prosecute that which has no controlling legislation.

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